Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
The Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository is a proposed site situated in southern Nevada, approximately 160 kilometers northwest of Las Vegas, designated for the permanent disposal of highly radioactive waste. The project has been a focal point of controversy due to environmental concerns, particularly regarding the geological suitability of the site, which is located in a seismically active region with numerous earthquake faults and a history of volcanic activity. Additionally, there are significant worries about the potential for groundwater contamination and the risks associated with transporting nuclear waste across the United States.
The Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982 initiated the process for a national repository, and by 1987, Yucca Mountain was selected for further study. Over the years, various federal administrations have expressed differing levels of support for the project, with funding and licensing efforts facing multiple legal and political challenges. While initial plans aimed for the repository to be operational by 2010, the project has been stalled, with its license application withdrawn in 2010 due to lack of funding and political opposition.
Despite attempts to revive the project under subsequent administrations, local opposition remains strong, particularly from Nevada lawmakers who argue against storing the nation’s nuclear waste in a state without nuclear power plants. As of now, high-level radioactive waste continues to be stored temporarily at various locations across the country, awaiting a long-term solution.
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Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository
IDENTIFICATION: Proposed and partially developed radioactive waste storage site located in southern Nevada
The selection of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a repository for the permanent disposal of highly radioactive waste has been controversial because of a number of environmental concerns, including questions about the site’s geological suitability and the challenges of safely transporting nuclear waste across the country. In 2010 federal funding for the site was cut and its license application was withdrawn. However, it continued to be debated as later presidential administrations expressed support for the project.
The 1982 Nuclear Waste Policy Act began the process of establishing a permanent underground storage repository for America’s high-level radioactive waste. In 1987 Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act, which singled out Yucca Mountain as the only site to be studied for the national repository. The Department of Energy (DOE) had begun studying the area as a possible repository site almost a decade earlier. Yucca Mountain is located roughly 160 kilometers (100 miles) northwest of Las Vegas, Nevada. The plan called for specially designed waste canisters to be stored in tunnels bored into Yucca Mountain at a depth of approximately 305 meters (1,000 feet) below ground surface and 305 meters above the water table.
Any proposal to construct a high-level nuclear waste repository somewhere in the United States is bound to meet with controversy. In Yucca Mountain’s case, many questions have been raised concerning its geologic suitability. One concern is the site’s location within a seismically active region. There are more than thirty known earthquake faults in and around Yucca Mountain, some of which have been active since work began on the repository. In 1992 an earthquake with a magnitude of 5.7 caused considerable damage to the aboveground Yucca Mountain project field operations center. The DOE has maintained that the threat of earthquakes to the underground repository is not a significant problem because deep subsurface structures can withstand the ground motion generated by earthquakes.
Another possible problem that has been cited is Yucca Mountain’s volcanic history. The mountain was formed millions of years ago by a series of explosive volcanic eruptions. Scientists have studied twelve small, dormant volcanoes located within 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) of the mountain. All have been active within the past four million years, and half of them have erupted within the past one million years. By some estimates, the probability of future volcanic activity disrupting the Yucca Mountain repository during the next ten thousand years is about one in seven thousand. According to the DOE, however, the volcanic threat to the repository is negligible.
There is also considerable concern about the movement of subsurface waters that could transport any radioactive material that might leak from waste containers. During the mid-1990s new findings indicated that there were more fractures and more water in Yucca Mountain rock than previously believed. The DOE asserted that corrosion-resistant waste canisters would be sufficient to prevent groundwater from carrying radioactive material off-site.
Finally, opponents of a centralized national repository at Yucca Mountain or elsewhere have pointed out that an accident during nuclear waste transport could result in the release of radiation in a populated area. Project proponents have countered that the likelihood of radioactive contamination is slight, citing the existing successful safety record for the transport of nuclear material worldwide.
In 1993 the DOE scheduled interim waste storage to begin at the facility in 1998. The repository was to be completed and accepting wastes for permanent storage in 2010. However, by 1998 suitability studies were still being conducted and the site was not ready for interim storage. In 2001 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed radiation standards for the repository; the state of Nevada, seeking more stringent standards, responded with a lawsuit.
In 2002 Congress authorized the DOE to apply for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to construct the Yucca Mountain repository. Legal, political, technical, and budgetary issues resulted in more postponements. In 2004 the US Court of Appeals ruled that the EPA’s standards for the site, which would protect public health and the environment from radioactive exposure risk for ten thousand years, were inadequate in light of recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences. A year later, the EPA issued proposed changes to the standards that extended protection to one million years.
In 2008, by which time the repository’s proposed opening date had slid to 2020, the DOE submitted its license application to the NRC. With a Democratic majority in Congress and Senator Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat and longtime opponent of the repository, serving as Senate majority leader, congressional support for the costly project was flagging. In early 2010, the federal budget for fiscal year 2011 eliminated Yucca Mountain repository funding altogether. On March 3, 2010, the DOE filed a motion with the NRC to withdraw the license application for the repository. The facility did not receive any waste for storage.
A special commission was formed in March 2010, to assess the country’s nuclear future and provide recommendations concerning long-term strategies for radioactive waste disposal. The NRC and federal courts also continued to review various legal challenges that have been filed in opposition to Yucca Mountain’s closure. Hopes of restarting the project were boosted after the controversial election of President Donald Trump, a Republican whose administration voiced support for Yucca Mountain. In 2017 Trump proposed to Congress a $120 million plan to reboot the licensing process for the facility and pay for interim storage of nuclear waste. A Republican-controlled Congress, and the retirement of the influential Reid, meant the political climate was much more favorable. In June 2017, the House Energy and Commerce Committee approved a bipartisan bill to move ahead on licensing.
By September 2018, however, the House legislation to restart the licensing process was dropped by opponents in the Senate. Senator Dean Heller, a Nevada Republican who opposes the project, has stated that Nevada should not be forced to store the nation’s nuclear waste against its will, especially because the state does not have any nuclear power plants. Representative Jacky Rosen, a Nevada Democrat who is challenging Heller for his Senate seat in the 2018 midterms, also opposes transportation and storage of nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, due to its proximity to US military bases. Yucca Mountain was not utilized for nuclear waste disposal by President Joe Biden's administration. Until a solution to America’s radioactive waste disposal problem is found, high-level nuclear waste will remain distributed among various temporary storage locations at facilities across the country.
Bibliography
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